Tyrone 2-13 Derry 1-9: Malachy O’Rourke pleased with ‘disciplined’ Tyrone display

O’Rourke also praised his side’s adaptation to the new rule ‘enhancements’ as Tyrone did not receive any cards or 50-metre dissent fouls.

“That was pleasing. We’ve had a couple of challenge matches and we’ve concentrated on that in our own in-house games to get on top of that because it is a big punishment,” he added.

“The boys were disciplined at the back, some great tackling and they didn’t give away needless frees and no yellow cards, so I was pleased with that.”

Tyrone’s victory was made all the more impressive by the fact they were missing their Errigal Ciaran contingent including brother Darragh and Ruairi Canavan, after their run to the All-Ireland final.

O’Rourke confirmed that those players will not be rushed back and are likely to feature in the latter stages of the league campaign.

“We definitely want to give them a bit of a break. That couple of points tonight helps in that you aren’t rushing them back in,” he said.

“You could get short-term gain out of it, but long-term pain. We’ll be chatting with them and seeing how they feel and, hopefully, get them integrated back over the next couple of weeks.

“We have a panel there that we want to get a look at as well. We’ll be delighted when the boys do come back in, it is a matter of getting them up to speed with the new rules.”